2014 has been a great year for great movies – as our Top 50 Films Of 2014 proves beyond a shadow of a doubt – and it’s also been a great year for great movie posters. Though the medium is evolving, the key requirement of creating eye-catching art for a feature film is not going anywhere. Feast your eyes on these 50, and let us know which we missed in the comment box below.
The Hateful Eight
We love it for… Looking slightly like a Sith lightsaber when you squint.
The Avengers: Age Of Ultron
We love it for… Being so dynamic that no-one really minds that Thor’s right arm looks a little wonk.
In The Heart Of The Sea
We love it for… Teaching us that Moby-Dick is hyphenated.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
We love it for… Taking a screenshot from the trailer – let’s face it, that’s what it is – and turning it into something truly eye-catching. Those broken webs are a nice touch, too.
Big Hero 6
We love it for… Its big, bright colours and manic sense of fun.
The Rover
We love it for… The precise point of focus.
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
We love it for… All right, calm down.
Birdman
We love it for… Making it impossible to pick a favourite. The Birdman poster campaign has been second to none, with individual country-centric spin-offs further adding to the magic. Plus, if you look closely on the billboards in the background, you can see the faces of Michael Keaton’s co-stars, as well as Birdman himself on the roof top.
Blue Ruin
We love it for… That darker-than-dark red blood.
Nightcrawler
We love it for… Being so goddamn cool (as well as the colour newspaper print effect).
Foxcatcher
We love it for… The torn paper effect, and the fact that it’s a real tease. You wouldn’t know from this one-sheet that this was the silhouette of Steve Carell, nor that it was about wrestling, or… anything at all, really.
Fury
We love it for… Convincing some people that there was a movie called “Brad Pitt” starring Brad Pitt. Also, the paint on the turret.
The Book Of Life
We love it for… Its simplicity (and the worn away white paint scuffs).
Boyhood
We love it for… Making us not mind that the grass repeats itself (look closely...).
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
We love it for… The shape of the 'A' in kinda-sorta silhouette.
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
We love it for… The sheer level of detail in the eyes, the eyebrows, the facepaint, the lips, the nostrils, everything. It’s so detailed, in fact, you almost forgive it for the two “of the”s clunkily clogging up the title.
Maps To The Stars
We love it for… Mia Wasikowska’s creepy, creepy eyes.
Lava
We love it for… Being so lava-ly (sorry-not-sorry).
Dumb And Dumber To
P.S. Bonus points for the Lucy-riffing black and white posters too.
Mr. Turner
We love it for… The mixture of digital and physical.
Godzilla
We love it for… The trails of red smoke. Director Gareth Edwards admitted that the colour was purely for aesthetic reasons – reasons no better seen than on this poster.
The Purge: Anarchy
We love it for… Representing a whole new American way.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
We love it for… The sheer Wes Andersoniness of it all. If there was a poster designed – or, at least, carefully commissioned – by the director himself then it’s this one.
The Quiet Ones
We love it for… Being very noisy.
RoboCop
We love it for… Making the Robo-reboot actually look very cool. For a second or two, at least.
Guardians Of The Galaxy
We love it for… Those purple clouds, that greenish sky, the cocksure look on Chris Pratt’s face. The other main poster, which is more typically Marvel, is also pretty great, but not quite as distinguished as this.
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies
We love it for… The look of sincere fear on Gandalf’s face (as weird as that sounds).
Frank
We love it for… Living up to the film's own critical praise: “Bonkers and brilliant”.
Bananaman
We love it for… Being a poster for a Bananaman movie, basically.
Playtime
We love it for… Being cinema’s worst game of hide and seek.
Horns
We love it for… The cracked paint effect. There was something about Daniel Radcliffe turning into a devil that really inspired designers – something you can see in the snake effect, the trees and the paint splatter.
Enemy
We love it for… A different kind of Face/Off.
Gone Girl
We love it for… Actually working. After all, this is a film that is basically impossible to make a movie poster for, and they managed to sneak in some studio synergy with the Fox News plug.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
We love it for… Jena Malone’s dress, the tiny claws on the lions’ feet and, um, all that white.
Kingsman: The Secret Service
We love it for… Reinvigorating the everything-in-its-place poster trope.
Maleficent
We love it for… Those horns, those eyes, those cheekbones.
Inherent Vice
We love it for… That particular shade of pink.
Under The Skin
We love it for… That shock of orange that perfectly complements the stars.
Chappie
We love it for… Not the level of detail on the wall, necessarily, but on Chappie himself – the graffiti in particular.
Oculus
We love it for… Making bus stop passers-by want to cover their eyes – in a good way.
Whiplash
We love it for… Taking a well-worn poster design trope and making it new again. This is a “Look-at-all-the-critics-who-love-our-movie!” special made extra-special.
Interstellar
We love it for… The fireworks bursting from the rocket’s trail.
300: Rise Of An Empire
We love it for… Taking “Bloody hell!” to a whole new level.
Willow Creek
We love it for… Making Sasquatch genuinely scary again.
The Babadook
We love it for… The look of The Babadook: the hands coming out of the ears, and the hair coming out of the… floor?